Illinois RIver

State Question 777 — also known as ‘right-to-farm’ — would give agricultural producers in Oklahoma the constitutional right to raise livestock and grow crops without interference from future regulations by the state Legislature, without a compelling state interest.

Opposition to the state question comes from multiple sources, but a diverse coalition urging a ‘no’ vote is united by a shared concern: water.

Gov. Mary Fallin on May 11 signed a bill disbanding the small state agency, transferring its mission — and employees — to the Grand River Dam Authority, which now takes on the Commission’s role of keeping Oklahoma’s six scenic rivers clean and safe for tourists.

The Oklahoma Scenic Rivers Commission is a small agency with a big job: Police the Illinois River and protect six of the state’s most delicate waterways from pollution. But budget cuts have forced the commission to plan for its own death.

Flooding December 26-28 caps off a year that saw the Illinois River damaged by extreme rainfall time after time as Oklahoma’s five-year drought gave way to apowerful El Niño that’s been bringing strong storm systems through the state since May 2015.

This is part one of StateImpact Oklahoma’s four-part series on the history of Oklahoma’s scenic rivers and the threats they face.

The six eastern Oklahoma waterways classified as scenic rivers are each examples of the pristine beauty of that part of the state. They’re also tourist magnets. Even on a Monday morning, rowdy Tulsans pile into a bus at Diamondhead Resort and rumble toward the nearest access point into the Illinois River.

Arkansas Attorney General Dustin McDaniel says a limit on phosphorus concentrations in the Illinois River in Oklahoma was "unfairly calculated" when it was set a year ago.

So, McDaniel said Wednesday that Arkansas entities will pay for a new $600,000 study to work out a more scientific and reasonable limit.

The Illinois is designated a scenic river in Oklahoma, but officials there say runoff from poultry operations in Arkansas has harmed the water quality in the river, which begins in Arkansas and flows into Oklahoma.